


Never let me go

by maevesdarling



Category: Westworld (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Feelings Realization, Holding Hands, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Implied Relationships, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death, Missing Scene, Past Violence, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24286855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maevesdarling/pseuds/maevesdarling
Summary: Missing scene, what happened after Bernard and Stubbs left the park.(...) They sat together side by side in complete silence, watching the last sunlight fade. "It really is beautiful here. We should stay and build a little cabin for ourselves and forget about everything else." Stubbs mused."Yeah, maybe after everything's over. We could come back." (...)
Relationships: Bernard Lowe/Ashley Stubbs
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Never let me go

**Author's Note:**

> Titel of this fic was inspired by a Florence and the Machine song. This is a bit stupid I know but I actually missed the dialogue where Ashley talks about them swimming back to shore the first time. I was inspired by a convo on Tumblr to write this. 
> 
> Also I like to think that Ashley was so caught up in his role he actually believed he was human for some time. I would have loved to see more from both of them this season because especially Ashley is a character we hardly know who has a lot of potential. Anyway I'm rambling, have fun with this.

Exhausted wasn't even a word to describe the way Ashley felt. His shoulder was throbbing in pain, he was positive the wound had reopened and blood was continuously gushing out of the broken skin. He could hardly lift his arms to try and swim any further, eyes and lungs burning from the saltwater.

"Not much further, c'mon Stubbs, we can do it!" Bernard was yelling over the waves. He was about twenty meters ahead of Stubbs. "You know, I really ought to thank you Bernard. Shooting yourself in the neck isn't painful enough, drowning on the other hand, that's where the fun is at, isn't it?" He yelled back, breathing heavily. The other host glanced back at him and sighed. 

"Hold onto me." He was swimming on the same spot to wait for Stubbs to catch up. "Hold onto my back, I'll carry you to the shore." They squinted into the distance. The shore was about half a kilometer away, they could do it, probably. 

Ashley grunted in pain as Bernard moved his injured arm over his own shoulder. "Hold tight." He said.

Together they moved a lot slower than before but at least they actually moved instead of paddling a few hundred meters before waiting for the other to catch up ever so often. "Remind me to thank whoever sold that boat to you, must have been a real fucking craftsman, very skilled with his work."

"It's not the fisherman's fault the boat sunk, it just wasn't build to sail the ocean." Bernard retorted, the shore was now about three hundred meters away and the waves around them kept getting bigger and more powerful. "How are you holding up?"

"Ask me again in an hour, if I'm still alive by then." Stubbs replied sarcastically even though it wasn't entirely a lie. He really felt like dying. His vision was filled with two white spots and his lungs had a metallic taste to them. Bernard huffed and pushed them closer towards the shore. 

Underneath them, the bottom of the ocean was slowly becoming visible, not shallow enough to stand but easy enough to make out their drowned bodies in the water, Ashley thought grimly. 

"I'm sorry, okay. I'm sorry you were shot because of me, I'm sorry for the boat and I'm sorry that you had to swim back to shore. It's not how I had planned this to go either-" A large wave shut the dark haired host up when it suddenly swallowed them both up.

Ashley blinked his eyes open in the salty water. It burned but otherwise he would loose his orientation. They wave had pushed him down, closer towards the bottom and he couldn't hold his breath for much longer, not when his shoulder was throbbing like that.

Relax, Stubbs, you've had worse. He tried to tell himself and raised his arms to push himself up towards the surface. It felt almost like he was shot a second time, his shoulder exploded in hot, white pain. Ashley let out a pained scream, which caused him to use up all the leftover air he had been holding inside of him. Almost instantly his vision was getting fuzzy around the edges, he could feel himself drifting into unconsciousness.

A shadow fell over his face and when he looked up he could see Bernard reaching for him. The dark haired managed to grab his uninjured shoulder and pulled him up to the surface. 

Ashley took in a sharp breath when his face was hit with fresh air. His lungs started rebelling and he coughed up some of the water he had swallowed. "Stay with me, goddammit!" Bernard cursed, he tested the ground tentatively and noticed that he could stand again. 

Supporting Ashley as best as he could he half walked, half dragged them back to the shore before breaking down just out of the waters reach. 

Both hosts just laid there, unmoving for what felt like hours. Ashley could feel every single muscle in his body protesting in pain when he finally managed to roll onto his side to face Bernard.

They both looked like a mess, hair and faces caked in sand, clothes soaked through the bone, but they were alive.

"You- you've got a little something there." Ashley pointed towards Bernard's sand coated beard. The dark haired host grinned, happy to be alive.

"Yeah?" He pointed towards Ashley's hair. "You too." 

Silence followed. They watched the sun set deeper and deeper, painting the sky in a beautiful orange. "Have you ever seen anything so full of-" Ashley started but stopped himself when he realized what he was about to say.

"I- sorry, I think I swallowed too much water, brains gotten all mushy." 

"Yeah, no, it's okay. Old habits and everything."

Ashley stood up with a groan, shaking the sand from his body. "But I shouldn't- I should be better than that, I've been doing my job for-" He rubbed his hand over his face. "God knows how long, and I never slipped. Not once. I always prided myself with it. Thought I was something special because I was so… so human... Sometimes I think that was my mistake. I was so caught up, I made myself believe I was one of them." He abruptly faced the other host.

"I feel like a traitor to my own kind. I- I helped the humans for so long, even after the massaker, jesus Bernard, I allowed them to torture you-"

"Ashley!" Bernard interrupted the blonde. "Please, you're tired. And confused. Sit." He pointed to a spot next to him. "You are not a traitor, you did what you had to in order to survive. If you hadn't played along neither of us would have survived the park. We both helped the humans, hell I didn't even knew I was a host until a few months ago! Ashley you tried to protect us, you protected me. And not all of them were bad. You remember Elsie? She was a good person."

Ashley slowly sunk down in the sand next to Bernard. "Yeah, she is. I wonder what happened to her, if she made it out of the park…"

Bernard's heart sunk. "Ashley… I… I'm sorry to break it to you… she's dead. I saw it happen. Charlotte Hale, she shot her. I couldn't help her, I'm sorry." The look on Stubbs face was devastating. 

"Shit." Was all he said.

They sat together side by side in complete silence, watching the last sunlight fade. "It really is beautiful here. We should stay and build a little cabin for ourselves and forget about everything else." Stubbs mused. 

"Yeah, maybe after everything's over. We could come back."

Stubbs hadn't noticed how close their hands were until he could feel Bernard's fingers tracing patterns into his skin. "We need to stop them."

"I know."

"I'll protect you from them, at all costs."

"I know."

The last sentence hung in the air like a promise. Bernard allowed himself to hope. With Stubbs by his side, maybe, just maybe, he had a chance to stop Dolores.


End file.
